Messages

I like the design quite a lot, definately different from the norm.   Agree with the scrollbar color so it's not out of place.  Other than that, maybe different text layout for the informational pages.  If I came across the page and didn't know whose it was, my brain would just fuzz over seeing all that 10pt font in a flock of paragraphs.  The main/welcome page could have a touch more style to it.  It's a short introductory text so you can afford a little more space distribution.  You've got inches of free space around the text and that's on my 800x600 work monitor.  I think that welcoming screen needs to "slap you awake" more than just provide a friendly greeting.  As far as graphics/technical stuff go, it's quite nice.  Best part, I think it the music-preview link to loading animation, etc.

If you'd like tips to help you draw or to improve upon drafts that you've already done of your characters, I'm sure most would be happy to help.  However, merely asking for someone to design characters for you leaves a lot to be desired.  If you can't do the art segment of a game then you've definately got to have another skill to offer.  If you demonstrate the ability to write a cohesive plot-line or whip out new script like crazy then you might win over a technophobic artist or two.  

The graphics aren't nearly as important as the gameplay & writing.  There've been many good amateur adventures that didn't concentrate on being visual works of art and, instead, used easier drawings merely to deliver an excellent plot or unique style of gameplay  (Stickman comes immediately to mind).

That's a lovely conversion of a night scene to a dawn/dusk one.  I think the shadowed/blue shade comment is valid.  You don't have to cast everything in a dark shade if it's lit with an external source.  Maybe a lantern or something in the middle area?

And nobody mentions the star of Six-String Samurai?  For shame.

Ah... I see.  You're *crazy*.  It's okay, we won't treat you any different.

[To nobody in particular, "Hey, go put 'em in one of them crazy-buckets!"]

Not a helpful post but loominus, you hypnotized me for a good 10 seconds, quite odd that.

Loom's edit does make a couple improvements as far as consistency.  Unfortunately, it also seems to knock 5 or so years off the char's age.

Heh, Yufster:
Pic I did of GGB awhile back.

Contemplating moving to SF, actually. Rent's cheaper.

Back to topic, I think it was a good point and it's good to be reminded of this once in awhile but 5 pages?

Top notch.  Website looks great & rather professional.  The screenies of your current project are awesome as well.  I'll be keeping an eye on this one.  That is, assuming it gets fully translated or I learn French.  

Can't bloody stand beer.  I'm a coffee guy, so it's a little brandy or bailey's for me.  If I go non-coffee, I usually order a Long Island Iced Tea or a Jack & Coke.

AGA, we've got a little link in the top-right.  It's called, "Edit."  

Anyway, AGA's correct.  NTFS won't have any problem reading/writing FAT32 partitions.  However, if you convert the partition to NTFS, you won't be able to read it w/ Win98.  The Win2000 vs. WinXP thing is a matter of preference.  I prefer the interface, options, etc. of 2000 but I have found several games, drivers, & programs that refuse to work with it.  To be specific, Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight would not display video, after trying various fixes, tech supports solution was to skip all cutscenes.  I also tried a couple shareware & abandonware titles, as well as various graphics applications.  All of these met with mixed success.  Win2000's performance on low-end hardware is abysmal, I don't know about XP's in comparison though.  It is my opinion that XP is a horrid dung-heap but is almost universally easy to use, thus my recommendation.  

Very skillfully done but I gotta agree with the legs thing.  It seems that they're curvaceous in all the wrong places for a woman, giving them a manly or even otherworldly look.  I think a few grey strands might be nice but in Darth's paintover, I would assume that she's got her hair shaved on the sides (a la main character from The Dig).  I think you only get massive greying above the ears with hair that's short on the sides.  some gray strands, possibly more concentrated in some areas might be a bit more natural-looking.  Of course, if the character is in its 30's, gray might not be necessary at this point.

Other ways to convey age/unsexyness might be to add more wear & tear to the face.  You wouldn't want to add lines since the smooth style you've got going is excellent.  However, some shading in the right places can give her some smile-lines, etc.  Based upon the shadows of the outfit, neck & hair, more face-shadows would fit well anyway.  Another thing that I associate with slightly older not-too-attractive women is excessive make-up.  Some blue eye-shadow would do wonders in this respect, IMO.  

As always, very impressive work!

Linux's equivalent applications are also very much in development.  OpenOffice is okay for the individual but a very poor solution for more difficult tasks or for businesses.  If you're checking out Linux, one easy way to do it is with Knoppix, you burn an iso to a CD, boot off the CD, all without installing anything over your old OS or repartitioning.  The distro I like, other than that, is Mandrake 9.2, seems pretty stable with decent support/drivers.  

As far as the HD space, BOYD, in any modern HD, you didn't pay for 80 gigs.  If you read the fine print, you paid for 80 gigs using the NTFS file system.  You're only buying 74 or so with a FAT32 system.  Either way, the full-drive support of Win98 isn't a liability of the OS itself but an advantage of the NTFS system utilized by newer OS's.  

Jimi, bottom line, as far as I'm concerned, is that things are headed the way of XP.  There have been a couple game demos that run XP-only, and 98 support is dropping.  I'm still using 98 but realizing I'm gonna hafta go XP sooner or later.  98 drivers are no longer WHQL certified, and various manufacturers are going to start dropping support sooner or later.  If you've got a decent PC (Say, over 1Ghz processor, 512 RAM) then you should probably bite the bullet and go for XP.  I haven't found any program that I couldn't run on XP that I could run on 98 (with some tweaking).  If you're worried about backwards compatibility with dos, you can keep the DOS files from Win98 and use a bootdisk, end of problem.

If you can spare a kidney, I hear those are worth a bit on the black market.  

I think LGM's posting his funds request in the hopes that the Americans on the board will pay to be rid of him.  

Agreed, BitTorrent isn't the best solution for distibution either but at least on par with Kazza.  Either still relies on somebody hosting the file being online at any given time.  However, there have been various offers to host your files and some web-based or FTP-based solution ought to have been used by now.  However you want to distribute your stuff is your business but it is in your best interest to reach as many people as possible, I imagine.

The internet and its varying facets, such as forums, web-pages and e-mail provide us with a lovely connection to people all across the globe.  Even without searching for it, the common man is subjected to numerous things which offend or annoy.  The best thing to do is to ignore it.  It is the solution most use for spam (i.e. ignore using filters, rather than replying viciously) and that would be my best advice to you at this time.  If the others can't behave maturely and just let it be, you should at least do the same.  I believe the AGS community would feel entirely different about you if your opponents were resorting to such ridiculous tactics and you chose the high road.  Believe me, if you're being treated unfairly and subjected to spam-lists, etc., the community as a whole would gladly back you up.  As it stands now, it would seem that we're forced to observe a shit-flinging battle among toddlers.  You're welcome to handle this situation however you like but in a personal war such as this, why air your dirty diapers in public?

Whoever told you that one's a tad touched.  I'm using a 120 G HD w/ 98 right now.  They may've meant that you won't get the full 80 Gigs because of misleading marketing.  Scientific Gig vs. Standard Gig and FAT32 Vs. NTFS & all that.

If we pay extra, will you stay there?

That's true.  Much of the world is biased in that respect.  The Winter Olympics is probably a strange moniker to you folks.  Of course, we could just establish a common season-zone like we have time-zone and have a G.M.S.  (Greenwich Mean Season).  

I'm a bit confused about a previous statement about Foster's.  I've heard on commercials that "Foster's is Australian for beer."  

ARgh..  it's just now 8:38PM here.  Unless we've got a couple lurkers who're more west, I'm among the last AGSers to enter 2004.  As far as plans, I plan on being 1/2 through my work-shift with another 6 hours to go, hooray!  

Perhaps this topic is founded on a valid point but I have encountered several conversations where I have been totally lost.  These are often discussions about certain sports, TV shows, etc.  If non-Americans have to put up with Americans using asinine references then it partially makes up for all the flak Americans receive from people residing in other countries.  

I will, however, try to keep in mind that other users may not know what a Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Circuit City, McDonald's, Taxi, Disneyland, et cetera, is.  Perhaps annoying but if you can't work out what a Best Buy and Circuit City are from the post's context, I worry for you.  A gentle chiding would've done but the point is made, thank you.  

Woohoo!  First entry!  That helps make up for the lameness!  



JAVA!

[edit: Ali, I had to laugh.  The character's positioning conveys so much character.  ]